A recurring series in collaboration with the Villa Aurora Artist Residency Program celebrating the historic landmark home, the rich creativity of its residents, and it’s survival through the Pacific Palisades fires of 2025.

In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. The house survived miraculously, and with it the antenna that keeps sending its signal through the Santa Monica Mountains. Villa Aurora has long served as a source and sanctuary for voices. While the house is now empty and silent, the voices it has nurtured continue to speak across the airwaves.  

This series explores the voices, past and present, that have supported and been supported by the Villa Aurora. Artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers have passed through its doors, drawn by the particular cultural intersection the house represents—a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.

Though the Villa Aurora cannot presently host its artists in residence, the radio station located there offers a platform through which their work, past and present, can continue to be shared.  Not merely a transmitter, but a space of resonance—for the many voices that define the Villa’s ongoing cultural contribution.

If the House Could Speak is a special broadcast series presented by Villa Aurora & LOOKOUT FM airing bi-monthly on KFQM, 101.5 FM in the Pacific Palisades and on www.lookout.fm